I really liked the aesthetic of last year’s brown furry tree skirt wrap (seen here) that sat beneath the potted live tree in my living room. It’s color was enough to help disguise dog fur, yet still give the barrel that the tree sat within a lush base, and I knew even before we picked up this year’s tree that I wanted to do the same this year, I just needed it to be bigger. Bigger tree, bigger skirt, perfect DIY project.

Never mind the fact that I used last year’s “tree skirt” to make this bear pillow which still, to this day, sits mushed on our couch (its shape is actually a great neck support for late night TV watchin’), last year I only bought 1 yard to get the job done, and this year, with our bigger tree, I figured it best to start from scratch and make a tree skirt to fit.

Enter 1-2/3 of a yard of faux fur fabric in dark brown. You can find it on a traditional bolt at your local JoAnn’s if you’re hunting in the right section, pun totally intended. The fabric’s natural width was 60″, so I had my length cut to 60″ to match. Perfect square. This fabric isn’t exactly cheap – it’s $16.99/yard which equates to 3.25 venti mochas – but it’s not like I was buying enough to make curtains or bedsheets (awesome, awesome-r), only a little bit for this project. Plus, with a 50% off coupon my total purchase was knocked from $28 to just $14, and for a custom furry tree skirt, not so bad.

I left with this. And promptly put it on my deck, the most logical place to cut a large piece of fabric with a high tendency to shed when trimmed.

I eyeballed this whole thing. I’m sure there’s a fantastic equation out there or an oversized protractor that I could have used to make this thing flawless, but I didn’t. I just worked carefully.

Right. A little off each corner, and voila, it looks like a circle to me.

Designed as a wrap-around tree skirt, it required a little extra trimming to accomodate our tree stand. Like this:

Not that you didn’t see it already in yesterday’s post, but it fits around the base of the tree nicely. I curled in the outermost edges to give it a fuller, poofy effect, and it’s a really great addition to our holiday decor collection.

Back out on the deck, keep in mind that if your dog is especially interested in your furry project, engage him. I looped one of the triangular corner trimmings right around Cody’s neck like a bandana which was enough for him to quickly lose interest in the entire project. But it sure was cute.

Anyways, in addition to draping a bandana around the dog and new tree skirt around our masterpiece of a Christmas tree, I also adorned the tree with a few new ornaments. Our trees growing up have always displayed everything from handmade ornaments to fancy fragile ornaments with perceived equal importance, and happily, Pete’s open to that style too, so we’ve continued on with it this year and merged both of our sets of ornaments for real, putting it all on display.

It’s hard to believe that this is my third holiday season spent blogging; Just like in 2010 and 2011, I’m dropping by to continue the tradition of showing my newest ornaments, ones collected throughout the whole year from various sources. They’re great additions.

Little known fact, Sears has awesome collections of ornaments around the holidays. It’s one of my go-to’s post-holiday, where I can stock up on wrapping paper and ribbons for the following year at mega-discounted prices, and also pick up a few ornaments while I’m at it. Last winter, it was the Ty Pennington collection that was the clear winner, as I brought home this graphic charmer, a delicate ornament shaped much like a hamburger roll. Yummy shape aside (I’m so hungry as I write this post), it has some great colors!

Sears won again as I also bought this trio of acorns, also from Ty’s collection. A single string connects the trio, but the individual ornaments can be separated and hung with hooks.

With as much excitement as splurging on a new Starbucks coffee mug, I picked this little squirrel ornament from the coffee shop’s clearance bin in the springtime for like, almost nothing. It’s 100% unexpected as an ornament, and 100% adorbs.

Our tree could be Noah’s ark in due time between the squirrel and this next ornament. Last Christmas, my mom gifted me with this giraffe, another cute and unexpected addition to our holiday collection.

This blue felt snowflake was purchased at Kohl’s during their Black Friday weekend, and the purple beaded snowflake was included with a gift tag on one of my recent wedding shower packages. Both are such nice pops of color against a dark tree.

I found myself with a bunch of new pine cone ornaments after last year’s pine cone wreath project, so this year a bunch of them, like the silver one shown, found their way to the tree. The gold sparkly pine cone was attached to one of our gifts last Christmas and fits right into the pack.

My last of the great, new ornaments was this summertime clearance-priced buy from West Elm. Or CB2. I can’t remember, one or the other. So shiny, so fragile, and so modern! And as anyone must do when photographing something reflective, hello goodbye.

What ornamental additions have you been saving up for the last 12-months?

Love the idea of using IKEA fabric around the base. Maybe I’ll borrow that idea for next year… I have some that I haven’t ever used.

The fur will only shed along the edges when you cut it to size. The bear pillow has held up really well to a LOT of wear over the year, no shedding at all on our couch, cushions, or clothes. It’s just a little more matted than it was a few months ago. A flokati rug would be great! Do yourself a favor and buy yardage of the non-slip carpet stuff at JoAnn’s – you can get it way cheaper by the yard than if you were to order a non-slip mat sized for a specific rug. I’m due for a new supply of the stuff myself.